If I lined up every single gun in my house and asked someone to pick out the most valuable one in the group, I'm not sure anyone would grace the correct rifle with anything more than a cursory glance. After all, compared to the modern rifles or handguns I own, it looks a little bedraggled. The finish is scratched and worn in places, and you can find a nick or ding in the wood stock in more than one spot. There is nothing rare or unique about this firearm that makes it worth a lot of money to a collector, and you can still find them selling regularly online at auctions sites for reasonable prices. So why is this the most valuable gun? Because this Savage 99 is more than just an interesting old rifle. This is my grandfather's gun.
The Savage Model 99 is a fascinating gun, and I could spend the whole post just talking about all of the neat features these old guns have. Since this isn't about the Savage 99 in general but my specific rifle, I'll just link you to this:
http://www.chuckhawks.com/savage_99.htm on the Savage 99. To quote from the article: "the Savage 99 is a genius of a rifle that epitomizes the best in American craftsmanship, creativity, and originality. Although no longer produced it remains highly revered, as it was the foundation from which Arthur Savage built one of America's great gun companies."
Like most people who own pieces of family firearm history, I can't tell the story of this rifle without telling the story of my grandfather's life. He grew up the son of poor farmers in the Texas Panhandle during the Dust Bowl. He was too young to serve in WW2, but graduated high school early at age 17 and went down to Texas A&M at the encouragement of a high school gym teacher in 1946. My grandfather loved sports and had thought about being a coach, so he tried out for the football team when he got down to A&M. Growing up a farm kid in the panhandle can make you tough, but 4 years of fighting in Europe and Asia tends to toughen guys up just a little bit more. My 17 year old grandfather was trying out against 22-26 year old combat veterans, and didn't quite make the cut.
His time at A&M instilled in him a great love of the school, and a lifelong love of Aggie football despite being cut from the team. He had season tickets and loved going to the games, and my dad posting a picture of him on another forum prompted this response from a man who had the tickets to their right for almost 20 years:
" I had the pleasure of sitting to your Dad's right since 1991 and I remember your mother well. I recognized your Dad from your pictures right away. Your Dad was a wonderful man and we miss him, even though we only met during a game or two per season....Your Dad and I would share our concerns about how the game was playing out, but I always knew that things were serious when he started humming Aggie Band music. I would cuss my head off, bellow at Slocum from the second deck, but he was in this Zen-meets-Panhandle-Farmer peace and I remain jealous to this day.
The last time I saw your Dad was at a night game in 2009. Everyone in our section missed your parents in the 2010 season. We were all afraid age had caught up last season when unfamiliar people took their seats. Please tell your mother that the large man who sat next to them grieves for your loss and wishes her the best as do about a dozen good Aggies who sat around them.
I got to spend an afternoon a year with your parents for almost twenty years and I am a better person for it. "
After college, he married my grandmother and they moved to Hale county in Texas and began farming in 1951. Sometime during that year, he had gone hunting with a neighbor who had a lot of guns, including this Model 99. He told the neighbor that if he ever wound up selling it, to give him a call first and he'd buy it. Later that year, the neighbor bought some fancy new rifle, and sold the 99 to him.
This Model 99 is chambered in .300 Savage and was built in 1950. My grandfather really enjoyed hunting, and this 99 was used primarily to hunt elk in Colorado, and for deer hunting in Texas. When it wasn't hunting, this rifle sat in a glass display case in my grandparents house (key left in the lock) for as far back as I can remember.
My grandfather passed away Christmas morning, 2011. My dad, after seeing the huge amount of effort it took to deal with 80+ years of accumulated things, decided to pass this rifle on to the next generation now so I am currently in possession of my grandfather's rifle. I can't really use the words "I own", because I will always be nothing more than a steward of my grandfather's rifle and his legacy for the next generation. He was well loved and respected by his friends and family, and this rifle is a reminder for me to try and live up to his example. I cannot wait to show my own children "granddad's rifle", and tell them about his life.
Thanks for reading such a long post about a man yall don't know. I'm sure a lot of us have similar stories and similar guns with family history, so I thought yall might enjoy hearing about mine....to end, a few more pictures of him:
